Tzipi Livni, Israeli Opposition Leader, Praises Hamas Commander Killing

JERUSALEM — Israel's parliamentary opposition leader on Tuesday praised the assassination of a Hamas commander in Dubai last month, in the first such comment from a top official.

Tzipi Livni of the centrist Kadima Party said the death of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was good, but she did not indicate who was behind the killing.

"The fact that a terrorist was killed, and it doesn't matter if it was in Dubai or Gaza, is good news to those fighting terrorism," she said at a conference of the Jewish Agency board of governors in Jerusalem.

Israel has refused to comment on assumptions that a Mossad team carried out the assassination. Dubai police have released pictures and passports with names of Israelis, saying the forged passports were used by the hit squad.

The Israelis have said they were victims of identity theft. Britain, Ireland and Germany have called Israeli ambassadors in for explanations about the forged passports, but Israel has not accepted responsibility.

Israel has come under withering criticism from some quarters in Europe and elsewhere in the wake of the killing of al-Mabhouh, who was found dead in his Dubai hotel room on Jan. 20. Dubai security cameras picked up 18 members of what the country's police commander said was a hit team, adding that he was virtually certain Mossad was to blame.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman was grilled about Israel's alleged role in the killing when he met European foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday. In a statement, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said that as long as there is no evidence beyond media reports linking Israel to the killing, the minister felt "there is no need to relate to the matter."

In the only Israeli government comment to date, Lieberman said last week, "Israel never responds, never confirms and never denies." He added, "I don't know why we are assuming that Israel, or the Mossad, used those passports."

Livni, a former foreign minister, served in the Mossad in the 1980s. In her address Tuesday, she rejected criticism of the assassination of al-Mabhouh, who Israel says was behind the kidnapping and killing of two soldiers in 1989 and more recently was in charge of obtaining rockets for Hamas militants in Gaza.

"The entire world must support those fighting terrorism," Livni said. "Any comparison between terrorism and those fighting it is immoral."

Comments

[Archie1955]

04:36 PM on 02/28/2010

I cannot imagine a more arrogant and immoral gang of thugs than these Israeli politicians. They are definitely the worst of a very bad crew. The idea that the leader of the Israeli opposition would take the podium and praise illegal, evil actions on the part of "who knows?", I think we all do, is perverse and points to reasons why Israel should be expelled from the community of nations.

[Balzac]

12:48 PM on 02/28/2010

Tzipi Livni is being obtuse. The reason the killing of that one guy was relatively praise-worthy is by comparison to the huge bombing campaigns to go after one or a few terrorists.

The reason the killing of that one guy from Hamas was so refreshing is because they didn't kill his brother, bodyguards, mother, niece, neighbors, or a collection of random civilians from his city.

If indeed this was the work of agents acting on behalf of Israel's national security apparatus, I wanted to say it's a welcome change back in the direction of individual accountability.

[Talossa]

04:59 PM on 02/24/2010

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1152025.html

Dubai is now claiming that 26 people (!) were responsible for Mabhouh's death. Is this starting to sound silly?

[juicyju]

07:28 PM on 02/24/2010

yup.

[darthmaul]

04:47 PM on 02/24/2010

Maybe it's just a coincidence, but I don't think I remember talk about any fake US passports being used in this operation. I wonder why that is?

[woodpecker4]

03:36 PM on 02/24/2010

All people fight to the end for their country and their Iand. Palestinians will fight for Palestine just like George Washington fought for the US during the American revolution. Even if they are weaker, they will will. Time, history and justice is on their side. 1947 Palestine belongs to the Palestinians.

[BubbaC33]

05:48 PM on 02/24/2010

You are absolutely right, the folks called Palestinians in 1947 do control eretz Israel. The Jewish immigrants were referred to as Palestinans by the Mandate officials.

[stephenlight]

12:51 PM on 02/24/2010

I demand a reurn of the church of my forefathers from the usurpers on the Temple Mount. And i want the Hagia Sophia back as well...

Archaeological evidence in the form of an elaborate mosaic floor similar to the one in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and multiple fragments of an elaborate marble Templom (chancel screen) prove that an elaborate Byzantine church or monastery stood on the Temple Mount in Byzantine times, presumably the aforementioned Holy Wisdom Church

[woodpecker4]

01:08 PM on 02/24/2010

It's been Palestine for more than a 1000 years. Do you want to return to the Neanderthal?

[stephenlight]

01:48 PM on 02/24/2010

A very appropriate question.

[woodpecker4]

12:51 PM on 02/24/2010

The Palestinians have the right to fight for the liberation of Palestine from occupation. Just like the French resistance during occupation in WWII. No amount of Western propaganda can diminish the fact that 1947 Palestine belongs to the Palestinians.

[juicyju]

04:54 PM on 02/24/2010

Jews were Palestinians too, so yes, they have already won back their own land.

[BubbaC33]

05:49 PM on 02/24/2010

France is hardly a good model for resistance, most of them were collaborators.

[stephenlight]

12:41 PM on 02/24/2010

See, I can post absolutist bromides as well.....

[stephenlight]

12:41 PM on 02/24/2010

Israelis have a right to return to the land of their forefathers and eject the squatters who moved in after their expulsion

[phute]

01:14 PM on 02/24/2010

It is the land of the forefathers of others too.

[stephenlight]

01:49 PM on 02/24/2010

I totally agree. This is a parody of some of the viewpoints offered here.

[StCuthbert]

01:58 PM on 02/24/2010

woodpecker does not possess the thinking power required to understand the irony of your posts.

[stephenlight]

12:40 PM on 02/24/2010

All Israelis are defenders of their Patrimony, founded on the Temple In Jerusalem, which their forefahers built.

[fifteen pounds]

03:18 PM on 02/24/2010

Herod was a Roman agent..

[almazza98]

05:23 PM on 02/26/2010

Here is where it gets interesting. Who were the Jews back then, and who are their descendants right now? DO YOU REALLY KNOW... Most Palestinians were descendants of the Jews/Caananites that remained in Palestine who either became Christian (the First Christians) or through the centuries of empires, became Christianized or Islamicized and Arabized some even remained Jewish. The Myth that the Palestinians came just at the end of the 19th century from other Arab countries is so full of CRAP and has been debunked. But you will find Zionist repeating it because they need LIES and VIOLATING LAWS and COMMITTING WAR CRIMES to stay the course.

[stephenlight]

08:58 AM on 02/27/2010

This was a parody of Mr. Woodpecker's statements. I can trace back multiple claimants to every inch or the Middle East becasue so many peoples have been there. I prefer not to kill any of the current residents over the claims of their predecessors, but there are mnay on all sides who wish to throw the dice for a 100% 'victory'.

[woodpecker4]

11:27 AM on 02/24/2010

All people fight to the end for their country and their land. Palestinians will fight for Palestine just like George Washington fought for the US during the American revolution. Even if they are weaker, they will will. Time, history and justice is on their side. 1947 Palestine belongs to the Palestinians.

[StCuthbert]

11:38 AM on 02/24/2010

woodpecker, please keep posting. You are showing everyone why this conflict is still going on: the complete unwillingness of the Palestinians to accept Israel's existence as a Jewish state.

[woodpecker4]

11:51 AM on 02/24/2010

It will never end until 1947 Palestine is captured back by the Palestinians. And that is only fair. No matter how you dislike war, you will always fight for your country until the end.

[David Rozgonyi]

12:33 PM on 02/24/2010

I would ask if Palestine did what I would like to see them do (DECLARE UNILATERAL INDEPENDENCE TODAY AND DEMAND UN RECOGNITION AND PROTECTION), how willing do you think Israel would be to accept such a declaration and state?

[who38]

12:01 PM on 02/24/2010

Only US history books refer to that war as a revolution; the Brits call it an insurrection; the Native Americans call it a land grab that became a halocaust.

[stephenlight]

12:23 PM on 02/24/2010

All true and your proposed solution to this might be?

[David Rozgonyi]

11:13 AM on 02/24/2010

Let me offer another perspective: As many of you know, I'm part Hungarian; my parents and I are naturalized dual US citizens. History lesson from my old country....

Hungary was occupied by the Russians as everyone knows. In 1956, with the United States promising to assist, Hungarians revolted in Budapest. For a week, barely-armed with homemade weapons and child soldiers, Hungarians massacred almost every Russian and AVO (hungarian/russian secret service) in Budapest. They threw them out of windows, they hung them from trees, they stomped them into the gutters and spat on their bodies. When needless to say US help was not coming as promised, the Russians came back and returned the favor. In the fighting against the occupiers, the Hungarians hid in public buildings, sheltered exactly as Palestinian fighters do today, used similar weapons; there are even cases of what amount to suicide attacks on approaching tanks by men and even children. Eventually, the uprising was put down, and Hungary wasn't freed till 1989.

My point? It is easy to say there is something in Islam that allows for such dirty fighting, or that "they" are different from us. Wrong. Any human being is capable of this if pushed far enough and long enough and hard enough, and they do not see a way out of their misery. The US and Isr. (being the occupiers and funding the occupiers) do not learn from this history at their peril.

[Caru]

11:24 AM on 02/24/2010

Don't worry, they'll still say that this is a result of the animalistic Palestinian nature. They have little else.

[StCuthbert]

11:31 AM on 02/24/2010

David, how do you explain the massacre in Hebron in 1929?
How about the attack on the Hadassah medical convoy in 1948?

These attacks are just as savage and relentless as any today, but the Palestinians at that point hadn't lost anything and weren't being occupied.

[David Rozgonyi]

12:32 PM on 02/24/2010

Well, although it doesn't pertain to my post so much, as far as I can gather, in Hebron, there were demonstrations by Jewish leaders (halpern?) about taking back the western wall, people attacked arab residents, someone spread misinformation that Jewish people were mass.acring Arabs (although in all likelyhood, there was abuse going on as above), the Arabs bought it in either case, and kil.led 67 Jewish people. Seems like incitement and blame on both sides, although any death on either side is wrong.

Also, checking wiki quickly, it seems a number of arab families sheltered some 400 jewish people and saved their lives. How do you explain that? *(just adding a non sequitur for ya).

[woodpecker4]

12:46 PM on 02/24/2010

Those were a consequence of the illegal Balfour declaration of 1917. Those sttler were trying to steaI Palestine from the PaIestinians.

[Fein]

11:03 AM on 02/24/2010

About what one would expect from a 'diplomat' who can only visit certain countries she's not indicted for
war crimes in.

[Macready]

11:15 AM on 02/24/2010

good one Fein

[woodpecker4]

10:49 AM on 02/24/2010

Mahmoud al-Mabhou was a Palestinian fighter fighting against occupation and for the liberation of Palestine. A true hero.

[stephenlight]

11:01 AM on 02/24/2010

He was also a killer of many people. He is no doubt a hero to you and othes. Let's see what legacy he leaves.

[woodpecker4]

11:16 AM on 02/24/2010

No. He didn't kill anyone who was not an occupier of Palestine.

[woodpecker4]

11:23 AM on 02/24/2010

All occupiers of Palestine are legitimate target in this war.

[woodpecker4]

10:48 AM on 02/24/2010

PaIestinians have the right to fight for their country, for the liberation of Palestine.

[stephenlight]

11:00 AM on 02/24/2010

They do and they will. I guess your role, like Dick Cheney's, is more on the intellectual powerhouse side of things. Fortunately, that means you do not have to exert yourself too much.

[vampbella09]

11:10 AM on 02/24/2010

I totally agree.